The sky around vdB 29 at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
vdB 29 is a reflection nebula in Taurus, 513 light-years away
vdB 29 (LBN 792) is a reflection nebula in the constellation Taurus, 513 light-years away. spans 14′ of sky, about 2.0 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in January.
Nebula: a cloud of gas and dust. Emission nebulae glow on their own, lit by ultraviolet light from hot young stars; reflection nebulae shine by starlight scattered from dust; dark nebulae block the light behind them.
vdB 29 is vdB 29 in the Van den Bergh catalog of reflection nebulae
Sidney van den Bergh listed it in his catalog of reflection nebulae (1966), drawn from the Palomar Sky Survey. He chose nebulae lit by a star bright enough to appear in the Bonner and Cordoba star catalogs. The star that lights it is HD 30378, B9.5V, magnitude 7.4. He rated it moderate in brightness and blue in color.
Finding vdB 29 from Hassaleh
vdB 29 lies 3.9° southwest of Hassaleh, the magnitude 2.7 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
vdB 29 is highest in the evening in January
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole northern hemisphere and south to about 60°S, and never sets north of 60°N.
vdB 29 is 513 light-years away
The light seen from vdB 29 tonight left it about 513 years ago, around 1513 AD. It ranks 21 of 158 by distance among the Van den Bergh nebulae. Distance source: Gaia DR3 parallax of the illuminating star via AT-HYG v3.2 (157 pc).
